REALLY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE INCOMING.
FINALLY ON THE 10TH CHAPTER WOO HOO! SO I'M FINALLY GOING TO CONTINUE RYAN'S PATH AS HE AND DAVE ENTERS OMASHU. ALSO YOU KNOW THE DRILL FOR THE REST. AND LIKE I SAID BEFORE THIS CHAPTER WON'T BE 100% ACCURATE TO THE EPISODE ITSELF. ALSO I'M PROBABLY GOING TO TAKE A BREAK FROM THIS STORY AFTER THIS CHAPTER FOR A SHORT WHILE. IT'S BEEN A NIGHTMARE TO WRITE AND I AM SERIOUSLY QUESTIONING WTF AM I DOING WITH THIS CROSSOVER, I UNDERSTAND I'M A BAD WRITER EVEN IF NOBODY'S SAID THAT TO ME. FOR NOW I'M GONNA BE WORKING ON THE PREQUEL AND PROBABLY MY METRO FIC.
PLUS I REWROTE THE PREQUEL IF ANYONE'S INTERESTED, WHICH THEY PROBABLY WON'T.
NOTE: THIS WILL HAVE SCENES THAT MAY DISTURB THE VIEWERS. I PLAN TO TAKE THE STORY DOWN A SLIGHTLY DAKER PATH (I'VE BEEN READING WAY TOO MUCH METRO). SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. IF YOU'RE OFFENDED FOR SOME REASON REMEMBER THAT IT'S A WORK OF FICTION AND I'M NOT TRYING TO PROMOTE SOMETHING AT ALL.
DISCLAIMER: THERE WILL BE INACCURATE PARTS IN THIS THAT AREN'T EITHER CANON OR EVEN TRUTHFUL TO REAL LIFE.
The whole gang stood by the forest cliffside. Ahead of them was the city of Omashu, a walled city with mountains of buildings sticking up, alas it has fallen under the bold red banner of the Fire Nation with its steel bridges stretching from all sides.
"Well f*ck," Ryan cursed, "These guys expand quicker than the NCR. And they can't even control a square mile!"
"I can't believe. I know the war has spread far, but Omashu always seemed... untouchable," said Aang absolutely shocked. It reminded Ryan of stories of some cities throughout human history thought to be unconquerable, until eventually it fell into chaos to only become an eroding carcass of its former self.
"Until now it has. Now Ba Sing Se is the only great Earth Kingdom Stronghold left," said Sokka folding his arms.
"Well, there goes one of our only hopes. The odds were small anyway according to my calculations," remarked DAVE. The hope for the tribal being out there had dropped for him. Almost erasing the search from his digital notes.
"This is horrible, but we have to move on," said Katara, "Sorry, Ryan."
"It's okay," the Californian responded, "But I know she's still out there. I'm not gonna give up looking for her." His relationship with East was very close, as friends not romantic or anything. He could've given up on searching for her any time he wanted and thought of it as a short chapter for the rest of his life and instead searched for a way back home. But East was one of Ryan's only friends close to his age, probably one of his only proper friends.
Aang took after Ryan and decided to look for the King of the city, Bumi.
However Sokka disagreed, "Aang, we don't even know if Bumi's still..."
"What?! Still what?!" The Avatar burst.
"Alive. He could've had his whole body burned alive or had himself beheaded, possibility of him being dead... 78.3%," said DAVE. Ryan was about to tell the eyebot to shut his speaker but then realised that for once DAVE had a point. There was no point in going into enemy territory to search for a dead man.
"Listen, I know you had your heart set on Bumi but there are other people who can teach you Earthbending."
He sighed, "This isn't about finding a teacher it's about finding my friend."
Later that day the sun was at twilight. The whole group decided to follow after the Avatar, leaving Appa behind for now. DAVE and Ryan would've declined but then it'd be harder to get around the world searching for East. Took them the rest of the day to get down to the gorge where a secret tunnel was built in. The whole rounded structure was filled with revolting waste and substances you wouldn't want to know. For some reason a skeleton was buried under all that crap. God knows why it was down there.
The two benders used their abilities to avoid all the filth ahead of them. DAVE stayed in Ryan's large backpack safe from the waste, he was surprised there was a missile launcher inside. As for Ryan he just wore his headgear, except his rebreather didn't help him at all. Sokka as well as Momo were unfortunate without any protection.
As they exited the tunnel they entered the city, it was a ghost town.
"Gross, I think I got some of that sh*t in my mouth," Ryan said disgusted. He ripped off his rebreather and spat out a mould of sh*t.
Sokka and the flying lemur entered looking like the swamp-thing from those old pre-war comics except brown. The lemur shook all the ggunk off of him. Aang blew all of that gunk off him. He had some strange creatures with tentacles sticking to his face. Sokka freaked out like an idiot. Aang told him to relax and tickled the creatures off of him, unfortunately it left a couple spots on his face.
DAVE exited the bag and took a look at the creature. Scanning it he gained the creature's entire biology, mostly the organs and other things of interests.
There was a shout from a fire nation soldier escorted by two others, "Hey! What the hell are you kids doing out here past curfew?!"
Aang quickly put on an orange hat hiding the arrow on his head. The two otherworlders just ran into the shadows out of sight.
"Sorry, sir. We were just heading back home," said Katara.
One of them looked at her brother. Noticing the spots on his face, "What's up with him?"
"Oh... he has pentapox," said Aang, "It's very contagious."
"And deadly..."
"Oh it's so awful. I'm dyiinngggggggggg," Sokka terribly imitated, though it seemed to convince the soldiers enough to fool them.
"Wait pentapox? I think I've heard of that," The soldier looked at another, "Didn't your cousin die of that?" At that moment they all ran away like idiots shouting they'll wash their hands and burn their clothes. God knows how they were able to join the military. Though all of this kinda reminded Ryan of his mother, she died of a plague. Though that reminder was already long gone, moving on shortly after.
The whole group lurked through the city searching for Bumi, currently they were walking on one of the high paths with unfinished constructions. He's an Earthbender so he'd obviously be inside a metal area as the waterbender said. Moving along one of the many towering walls of the city, there was a loud rumble thundering from above. Looking up, multiple boulders came rushing down targeting a large group of people walking on the lower paths.
Aang used his airbending to push the rocks out of the way thankfully saving the group below. Did I say thankfully? I meant unfortunately. As those people were actually high ranking people and a couple soldiers.
"It's the resistance!" A woman shouted.
Ryan facepalmed, he knew Aang was a kid and a pacifist but not everybody needed saving. However, he kept quiet.
One of the people dashed onto their road. It was a woman with a faint smile not much older than Ryan. She threw multiple tiny arrows at them. The avatar swirled his staff catching most of the arrows. Unfortunately, one of them got through and stabbed Ryan right in the helmet, the blade stabbed through his cranium almost touching the brain.
But the Californian had a thick skull according to DAVE, and he's been shot, stabbed, burned by lasers and so much more. This was nothing more than a slight painful injection to him.
"Oh Gosh! You alright?" Katara asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," the wastelander replied pulling the arrow out of his forehead, a bit of blood oozed out from under his helmet but he ignored it.
What occurred next was a battle between the other group. Some soldiers climbed up with ladders but DAVE vaporised them. The others below were horrified and dared not to fight the toaster, DAVE showed mercy to them, by vaporising one more soldier. The group then forced themselves to run off.
The woman was too fast for the group. Ryan couldn't get a good shot with his revolver on her, deciding not to take a shot and instead dodging all her attacks. DAVE couldn't fire at her either as he risked friendly fire. It was only up to the benders to fight them.
Just as the scaffolding behind them was about to collapse the group moved out of the way. The woman was about to throw yet another barrage of arrows, before she did the ground beneath them opened up having all of them drop below. Escaping the battle.
They found themselves with 3 people standing in front of them. Looking around they seemed to be inside a large tunnel with sewage waste dripping from the ceiling. Countless other civilians too surrounded them.
The bearded man in the middle, Captain Yung, greeted them. The whole place were where the whole resistance along with some people searching for safety lived. However, the king wasn't among them. The captain shamefully explained that on the day of the invasion he instantly surrendered. But all of that didn't matter now, their only focus was fighting the Fire Nation on their path to freedom.
However the Avatar disagreed. He proposed that it was a better idea to leave Omashu rather than directing their whole focus on taking back the city. It was better to fight another day than waste precious lives on too big a cause.
Although Yung disagreed on this he was outnumbered by many others whispering among themselves. In time the soldier quickly gave in.
He sighed, "Fine. But there's thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?"
Sokka came up with the idea of that 'pentapox' ruse they did earlier. Everybody was about to get a bad case of it.
Some hours later and everybody was busy spreading this fake disease onto each other. Like Yung said there were thousands that needed to escape. Ryan denied having any spots on him, didn't feel the need to.
As everybody was getting infected he sat down by DAVE on a nearby barrel. Doing some things on his Pip-Boy. He asked the eyebot, "Hey do you mind telling me what exactly is stored in those audio files?"
"It's mostly junk, research and adverts. However I do have a couple songs stored on here though they're not high quality."
"Let's hear some."
What followed was mostly static with someone singing inaudible lyrics. 'Not high quality' was an understatement, if negative quality existed the songs would be worthy of the title.
"That's all you have?"
"Well I do have audio files of Vault Dwellers in absolute pain during experiments."
Ryan gave the toaster a definite 'what the hell' look, "Why did they record that?!"
"I honestly don't know. Maybe one guy was doing it just for the hell of it."
"You Vault people are sick!"
"No sh*t Sherlock. We've had around 30 control vaults and the rest were experiments. Even during the end of civilisation humanity continues its crude path for their own wellbeing."
Ryan could hardly picture what life was like before the Great War. Best he got were from old pictures, books or even non-feral ghouls. Humanity for almost all their history had been living under caves scraping together rocks and lived only off the land. It wasn't until 10,000 years ago when civilisation had really picked up. The human race quickly advanced across the years, however one thing never changed.
War.
War is what turned men into monsters. What turned the once intelligent beings back into a primal state. What the reason was for humanity's greatness. As much as a cruel truth it was the secret behind a thriving civilisation. Many poor sacrifices had to be made. Some worthy others not. Vault-Tec did not make worthy sacrifices. Their whole reasoning all came to nothing.
Sure some good came from it such as the Vault Dweller, then the Chosen One. But was that really enough to thank an evil company? Nobody thanked the Romans for bringing them civilisation as they also brought oppression.
Ryan went back to doing things on his Pip-Boy. Deciding to exit the topic.
Two Earth Kingdom boys approached the wastelanders. One of them was about 13 in a bandana and the other 10 though he seemed to be holding something wooden behind his back. The Californian assumed they were brothers.
The 13 year old asked, "Hey. You're with the Avatar right? We were thinking you could help us."
"No I'm not going to look for your teddy bear," he replied thinking we was about to be offered a stupid fetch quest.
"This isn't about that. Our friend, she's been arrested by the Fire Nation," said the younger one, "Can you help us well break her out?"
Ryan sighed, "Well do you mind telling me why she was arrested."
"Well... she killed a lot of soldiers. Like an awful lot," Ryan gave them a smug look. Who the hell have these kids been befriending. He politely declined, it was their problem not his. They walked away, but just as they turned their back the wastelander saw the wooden object on the young one's back. It was a hunting rifle, similar one to East's. Could it have been the same?
"Wait!" He called, "Let me see the weapon."
The young one handed the rifle. Examining it, the gun was barely loaded. Only a single bullet inside. He quickly replaced a cartridge from his bag and pulled the bolt. The boys in their eyes saw him as another master in the gun arts.
"What was the name of your friend?" he asked.
"She called herself 'East'."
She was here.
East was in Omashu.
Ryan instantly equipped his headgear and loaded his shotgun. The older one told his brother to stay behind since he'd be safe with everyone else, he decided to escort him and DAVE to the underground prison.
Running past the gang, Aang question, "Ryan? Where are you going?"
The Californian simply responded, "I found her." Before running straight off. The teenager didn't actually need their help at the moment. All of this was no longer their business. Furthermore, it might've been a suicide mission despite the sh*t he went through on their adventures.
"What was he talking about?" Sokka asked.
The trio consisting of Ryan, DAVE and the boy called Akira snuck through the city heading straight towards the underground prison.
"So you're Ryan? Didn't think I'd ever meet you," said the boy as they all climbed up a building
"Yeah. Came a long way just to find her. Travelled the world with the Avatar too," Ryan responded jumping down.
Before turning a corner there were two guards chatting to each other about a platoon of soldiers who got trampled by giant boulders. DAVE forced them to ashes, Akira was astonished at the power of the eyebot.
"So, can you tell me where you and East are from?"
"I'm sorry we can't tell you that," DAVE restricted.
"DAVE, the others could handle it why can't he?"
"I've scanned his brain, the wavelengths cannot handle the information on where we're from."
"Did you just call me stupid?" The boy questioned offended.
"You have an IQ of at least 97, so you're pretty much quite far from it. What I'm saying is your brain cannot handle the truth where we're from."
"DAVE, I don't even think that's how brains work," Ryan objected, "He has a right to know."
"It's been proven that a shocking piece of news is able to damage someone's mental state if they have a certain brainwave."
"Sorry, Akira. By the way, how do you know East? I really should've asked earlier."
Akira caught them up about what happened the past week. The tribal girl found herself in the Fire Nation colonies with Akira and his brother Banko. She fortunately helped them escape where they fled to Omashu on almost a week's journey. However when the city was occupied they joined the resistance but only as saboteurs. Unfortunately the girl failed a sabotage and got caught.
"Wow. She's been up to quite a lot," said Ryan.
"Seems your friend is more capable than I thought," the eyebot added, "First time I saw her she had the features of a weakling that God knows how she survived the apocalypse."
"Have to be honest with you, DAVE. She sorta is."
"From what I've seen she's a pretty good fighter," said Akira, "You've trained her well." Well was a bit of an overstatement. The girl couldn't fend off a pack of raiders, only reason she could fend off a group of Firebenders was mostly because they didn't have guns, and fire made it no harder.
"Thanks. Hey if you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents?"
The boy's mood immediately changed, there was a depressing pause, "They're gone. It's just me and Banko now."
"Oh. I'm sorry I asked. My Dad disappeared and my Mom died of sickness. Just me and my sister now. Don't feel alone, we've all lost people. Hell even DAVE and that was before he got a conscience."
"Can I ask, is 'DAVE' a spirit?" Akira didn't react shocked like the others.
"I'm a man-made piece of artificial intelligence connected into this body. Trust me I'm not even close to a spirit." Akira only understood that last sentence however. His world was far too primitive to understand 21st century technology. If DAVE wasn't a spirit then what was he to him? It'd take a basic education of technology as well as many weeks of work to actually understand.
Turning a corner where thankfully no soldiers patrolled, Akira asked another question, "So, how did you and East meet?"
"Long story short I found her hiding in a gas station from raiders long gone almost a year ago. First time I met her she was pretty cowardly, and pretty stupid too, immediately assumed she was a tribal. Mostly because of the mark on her face. Properly took her in two weeks later to train her how to survive the wastes, since then she's been a pain to train." They entered one of the manholes into the sewers, it was the quickest way to get to the prison from where they were.
"Is East really a tribal name?" he asked as they trudged across the damp wet ground of waste.
"No. East isn't her name at all. We just call her that because she's from the East. Never got anything out of her backstory. All I know is that her tribe was taken over by Caesar's Legion." The Californian placed on his rebreather to shield the stench away and the boy just squeezed his nose.
"No wonder she has a grudge against them. Sometimes she talks hateful things about them in her sleep. Never actually mentioned it to her." Seemed East already told him about the Legion, but he didn't think she knew she was in another took a look at his foot thinking he stepped on a turd.
"Does that an awful lot. You get used to it after a while."
After minutes of strolling and heading into one of the deeper tunnels, they arrived at another manhole. It was right underneath the prison. The wastelander checked all his weapons, ready for a fight. He wondered if Akira was though, "You armed?"
The Earth Kingdom boy shook his head, only thing he knew in fighting was setting up traps and that was pretty useless in this situation. Ryan passed him a machete he looted off a dead legionnare. He seemed to have an idea on how it worked, just swing it around until you actually hit something. All of those ancient sword arts didn't matter in the end, a sword was just a tool.
The metal sound of the manhole creaked open. Ryan went through first, studying the multiple catacombs that laid around them. Rows of torches were lit up on all sides. He gave the others the signal that it was safe, all of them emerged to the rough grounds of the prison.
"Well then. What now? Ask around?" The wastelander asked sarcastically.
"Actually I count at least 314 life signs inhabiting these tunnels," DAVE scanned. Unfortunately he didn't have the hardware to access the identifications of everyone, he could've analysed the body structure of the people but the structure of the environment was merely too narrow.
"Asking around it is. Oh and Akira, if you encounter any Fire Nation soldiers, don't hesitate to kill them."
"Why would I hesitate to kill the bastards who killed my Mom? Seems only fair I give them a taste of their own medicine," he harshly responded. Ryan's first impressions of him immediately changed from just some resistance boy to... well a boy who wanted vengeance. That went dark quick. He couldn't say he blamed him. It was normal to have such a feeling no matter the situation. To DAVE he couldn't care less for his feelings against the Fire Nation.
They moved through the tunnels carefully watching their step. At least until they arrived near the cells built into the walls. Everyone stayed asleep, not even twitching to their presence. DAVE scanned through the cells but alas none of their body structures fitted East.
One of the prisoners stood by the bar, whispering "Psst" towards them. He seemed to be a middle aged man wearing basic clothing. As Ryan got closer the man asked, "You mind telling me what you're doing down here? Don't tell me, you're here to break us all out."
"Sorry, no. We're here to save a friend of ours. You think you'd seen her? She's like 14, has blonde hair, has like a black mark on her face?"
"Now that you mention it. I might've seen a girl like her a few nights back, but my memory is a little fuzzy," he gestured towards the lock of the cell.
"How are we supposed to know you're not a serial killer or something?" Akira asked pulling a suspicious face.
"I was arrested for manslaughter of countless Fire Nation soldiers. Now do you trust me?"
"We do now."
"Great! Now listen, the guard's key-" just before he finished the lock was already picked and Ryan opened the door.
"I did not know that was possible. You're telling me the lock could've been picked the whole time?"
"Nah I'm just an expert lockpicker. Now about that information."
"Alright. Thanks I guess. Your friend was brought down here a couple nights ago, dragged her to the cells a few cells away from here. Hell I'd say the location since I've been hearing screams from her almost every night," he explained. Screams? What in God's name have the Fire Nation been doing to her? "Now I'm gonna need a weapon," The Californian passed him a Fire Axe from his backpack.
"How many weapons do you keep in there?"
"About... less than 20. I was going to sell them but now I'm here."
"Much appreciated," the man ran off to his freedom, followed on by some groaning and moaning from soldiers who had their bodies jammed with an axe.
The trio moved through the caves, thankfully they weren't caught, if an alarm were to go off it'd most likely be from the corpses the prisoner left behind. They arrived near the cell block where East was suspected to be. The air that blanketed them smelled of dry blood and despair. None of the prisoners here had at least a decent treatment.
There was the sound of silent crying coming from one of the cells. It was the cry of a person who went through much grief and suffering. DAVE scanned the entire block, searching through skeletal structure to DNA. One of them stood out from the others, one of them was the result of why Ryan and DAVE came to this world. One of them was East.
"Found her," the eyebot said, "Just at that cell over there."
Ryan's eyes opened up, he smiled to be able to see the sight of his friend. However he was nervous at what he might've seen. From what the man said he heard screams coming from this area. He feared he might've seen his friend's mangled head still attached to a starved body. But that was all merely an exaggeration, nature knows suicide would've been a likely result.
But he pushed the dark thoughts away, and the whole trio head towards the cell. But what they saw absolutely horrified them. The half-starved tribal cowered in the corner, tucking her legs to her chest of her tattered clothing. The wastelander shined his Pip-Boy light on her, catching her attention.
Turning her head she revealed her brutally bruised face as if she was beaten almost to the gateway of the afterlife, followed on by the multiple cuts each painfully sliced into her skin. Blood seemed to have only oozed out of her nose mere hours ago, as can tell from the roughened red substance that almost fused above her lips. What the guards did was clearly punishable by death, what's worse is they had the balls to do it on a little girl.
She instantly cowered more at the mere sight of them, confusing the trio with the guards about to give her another beating.
Akira looked at Ryan wondering who'd speak first, the teenager from Redding stepped forward, "East. It's me, it's Ryan."
The girl jerked at the voice which hadn't been heard from in over a week. The voice of her only friend. She barely pronounced Ryan's name.
"She's traumatised," said DAVE, "Her mental pain seems to be off the charts. If you plan to use her in action I suggest you don't, giving her a gun will most likely result in a suicide."
"Yeah, I know. Haven't seen her this shook up in a while," said Ryan calmly. As much as he was horrified at the face of his friend this wasn't really anything new to what he'd seen across the wasteland.
"Wait this has happened before?" Akira asked.
"Half the time, her mental state's a mystery, one moment she's a fearless girl the next she's cowering behind a box hiding from a Mole Rat. She's stayed as the fearless person you've known for the longest time. But this, what these people've done to her will pay."
"Why the bloody hell are you still talking?! Get her the hell out of there!" DAVE shouted. Unfortunately it alerted a nearby guard.
Ryan crouched down to quickly pick the lock, but it was a tough one. It'd take him at least a minute or two to open. "Hold them off while I work," he said.
One of the guards came around the corner, shouting "Intruders!" before being reduced to atoms.
"Oh boy here I go killing again," said DAVE, "Watch me, Akira. I'll show you how to truly massacre people."
"Sounds like fun," he smiled. This was totally f*cked up, Ryan thought. This was obviously what would be taught of a raider child, Ryan's been killing people since he was 12 but he wasn't raised as crazy as this. The boy went into a defensive stance with the machete, obviously treating it like a katana.
A couple more guards came round the corner, but instantly were both vaporised and gutted from DAVE's laser penis and Akira's machete. The Californian looked at the Arizona tribal covering her ears from the not so loud battle.
After a minute of almost endless bloodshed the lock was finally picked. No more guards came through. Either they were busy dealing with some other escaping prisoners or the two just slaughtered the whole prison. It was strange that a toaster and some kid were able to do something like this against trained personnel, logic says they all would've been killed but instead this happened somehow.
As Ryan opened the door East came running towards her friend. Hugging him tightly crying on his chest. Yet Ryan didn't really feel that much happy on the outside. Sure he was glad but this was almost an everyday thing for him. But in return the song of a ranger hugged her tightly.
But he really wished he had something to calm her down with. And this wasn't something that'd go away for no reason, she pretty much had PTSD according to DAVE.
"Let's get the hell out of here," he said putting a blanket around East from his backpack.
"Why do you keep so much stuff in there?"
"Because you never know when something in here's gonna save your ass, and it has so many times. Unless you have something wrong with your back I'd advise you do something like this."
The whole group attempted to search for the exit. Not even realising the fact that they awoke the other prisoners.
"Why didn't we say anything?!" One of them asked, "Great, now we're damn stuck here!"
Just as they were about to head straight through the double doored exit they stumbled along the body of a man. It was the prisoner they released earlier, burned alive. The fire axe was still in hand. Ryan picked it up and placed it in his backpack.
"Did any of us even catch his name?" He asked.
"Wei," East muttered under her breath.
"Well he died doing what he did best," said Akira not even affected by the man's death, "Killing people."
The Californian crouched down and examined the fatal injuries. From what he saw he was killed at least a few minutes ago, meaning the one responsible for his death was most likely nearby.
"Alright, get ready for anything once we're outside. Who knows, there might be an entire army just waiting to incinerate us like DAVE," said the wastelander. Unfortunately, the thought of that worried his tribal friend greatly. However it did make her think, that's what I sound like?
Akira took notice of this. "Maybe it's not best if you predict the worse," he said. It was funny coming from someone who literally gutted at least 10 or 20 people in front of her. But nevertheless he was right, further mentions of death and violence could've easily raced her heart. The girl's already been through so much before coming to this world, God knows how the hell she hasn't gone totally insane or even fully break. Deep down she was mentally tough, wish the same could've been the same for the rest of her.
"You're right. Sorry, East," Ryan shifted his focus to the main matter at hand. "Alright, get ready. Akira open the door and I'll cover you if all hell breaks loose."
"Why not you?"
The teenager pulled a missile launcher out of the bag. Loosening most of the weight. "You know, in case I have to f*cking blow up an entire platoon of human flamethrowers."
"Do you just carry a missile launcher with you?" DAVE asked.
"You'd be surprised about how much I've got in this backpack. I have a mini nuke or two tucked in there."
"You have WHAT?!"
Akira shouted, "Guys, focus!" Before he slowly opened the door, peeking through there was thankfully nobody in sight. "All clear!" He loudly whispered.
Unfortunately, he was wrong.
As right at that moment, an arrow lunged into his abdomen. Dashing through his guts. The Earth Kingdom boy was forced onto the ground.
"Akira!" East cried her friend's name as Ryan caught his body.
He dragged him to the side. Examining his injuries, the arrow was already jammed straight into his intestines but fortunately it was only blood oozing out. Could've been worse, at least there weren't any organs just ripped out.
"S-so this is how it ends. The same way... my Mom died. Being shot... by an arrow," the boy stuttered. East's mental state was hit once again, not only by pain, but by guilt. An arrow didn't kill his mom, she did. There was a voice in her head crammed with all the trauma, urging her to tell the truth.
"DAVE, give me a scan, are there any vital arteries or organs hit?" Ryan questioned.
The eyebot analysed him, "A few arteries hit and the pathogens on the arrow will without a doubt infect his insides. A stimpak should work but only for the wounds. An infection will kill him later on."
Akira's heart rate sped up with fear. He was going into shock. "I-I don- I don't want to go," he hardly muttered.
"You're not going to die," Ryan assured, "Just need some antibiotics and you'll be good to go." The Californian searched through his bag, looking for the medical supplies needed to save his life. No antibiotics or even ointments, just stimpaks and a few supplies.
More sh*t hit the fan at that moment. The door was mashed open, and what was believed to be the one who almost killed Akira showed up, aiming a bow at them. Any second there was worthy enough to be slowly thought out.
But East didn't have time to think at all. She just had the chance to kill them right there and now. For a second all the trauma in her mind was just pushed out of the way. The tribal instantly grabbed the shotgun and aimed at their attacker.
That one moment could've lead to a variety of different outcomes.
Just the release of a string or the pull of a trigger could've changed everything.
One inch of a muscle could've killed them all.
ALRIGHT I'M DONE! I SINCERELY APOLOGISE IF YOU WERE DISTURBED BY SCENES IN THIS FIC AND TURNED YOU OFF FROM IT. I ASSURE YOU THIS WILL NOT BE BECOMING A DARKFIC OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT AT ALL. SO I'VE DECIDED TO PUT THIS INTO 2 PARTS AS THE LENGTH OF THIS CHAPTER IS LONG ENOUGH ALREADY. ANYWAYS I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT! AND HAVE A GOOD DAY (OR IN MY CASE NIGHT).